Method and system for identifying and characterizing publications containing a specified search-phrase, using number of, and relative frequency of, occurrences of the search-phrase (and, optionally, of synonym-phrases) in each publication to develop a measure of significance that represents the relevance of each identified publication (in which the specified search-phrase occurs) to the original search. The measure of significance can also be based on minimum separation distance between search-phrase occurrences and/or upon occurrences of search-phrase synonyms and time intervals within which the publication release dates fall.